Konohagakure: Broken Bonds
by Hexidecimal
Summary: Naruto fanfic based on unique villians of Konoha and Sand. Xerocreative gets first read, so go there if you want to see it before this community.
1. Chapter 0 Introductions

Season 1 - Chapter 0 - Introductions

There was once an enormous battle between the land of fire and the land of water on the ocean waves. This war was known as the War of Crimson Waves. Konohagakure had been betrayed by Kirigakure before Konohamaru had stepped into the reign as hokage. With the death of Naruto and the retirement of many of his friends, shinobi began to change. They became stronger, and so did their enemies. Kirigakure were the culprits for Naruto's death. During the War of Crimson Waves Naruto gained the trust of his enemies, and started growing peace with them. But the Mizukage, Suisaiga Mugan, was stubborn, and being the strongest enemy Naruto has ever fought he fell to the hands of the mizukage. With Suisaiga's last life he formed a highly forbidden jutsu known as Sekai-Teki Na Shi: Global Death. The ocean wrapped around Naruto and with giving his life, Suisaiga compressed Naruto and all of his shinobi in the water. All that was left was small beads of blood, which is as hard as a crystal: These beads are known as Ketsueki Ishi: Blood Stones. The world cried when this happened, and all of the nations bombarded Kirigakure. Nothing was left of this hidden village after vengeance was forced upon them.

Five years after the war, the world became darker. Their light of hope had been destroyed. Many shinobi walked away from their duties, afraid that another Suisaiga would rise to reign. The islands of the water country became a ghost town. It was dishonorable to live on the islands. This is also why many of the ruthless missing-nin made this their home. The islands massed around two hidden villages of missing-nin. One of the hidden villages: Namidagakure is known over the world as the Hidden Village of Tears. This village is where our story begins.

A small kunoichi with short messy black hair, intelligent white eyes, and black painted lips stands on top of the enormous monument raised to praise all the shinobi who died in the ocean waves of that horrible day. This monument resembles Naruto riding on Kyuubi. It stands over eight hundred meters tall and can be seen from the Hokage's mountain in Konoha. The small female shinobi who stands on the Kyuubi's fourth tail, which is the highest point on the monument, caresses her silky black shirt and pants in amazement of how much of the world she can view from the position. She has a short black silky t-shirt, which reveals a lot of her stomach. Covering her legs is a short skirt, which when she bends over a person could see her tight black spandex underneath. On her right leg the spandex reaches down to her toes. On her feet are platform sandals, an inch high. She wears the symbol of Takigakure on her two leather black gloves, which are scratched across: thumbs are cut from gloves.

The small girl from the village hidden in a waterfall looks down to a tall boy who stands on the head of Naruto. The boy is dressed in a charcoal trench coat. The coat has visual designs of a graveyard with swords as the gravestones around the bottom rim. He wears similar gloves that the girl wears, but he also wears a headband backwards on his head with the Kumogakure symbol scratched across. On his legs is a pair of cargo pants, black denim. He stands with his arms crossed imagining him staring over the country as a Kage, ruling over a hidden village. He grows a smile as his day dreaming gives him embrace to pride and honor.

"Are you day dreaming again, Kurosaki-kun? You know it won't happen unless we find our group and form our own village." The girl says with a malevolent expression on her lips.

Tsubasa Kurosaki ignores his partner and returns to his dream world. He imagines leading shinobi over the water, and into the land of fire. He watches as he jumps from wave to wave, and then to tree to tree. Next a scene of chaos appears in Konoha, and Tsubasa stands in front of the great Konohamaru. Their eyes meet and then both of them begin creating seals on their hands. But, as Tsubasa finishes first, his daydream halts. The girl jumps down and wraps her legs around Tsubasa's head as she sits on his shoulders playfully.

"What are you doing, Nagaku?" He asks with an annoyed twitch in his right eye brow.

Nagaku flips backwards and lands on her feet and pokes him in the back with one finger.

"I'm waking you up from a fantasy world of unimportance. You have to wake up and help me find the people on our list." Nagaku says while imagining her finger going through Tsubasa's spinal cord.

"Yes, the list. Who is next on our list?" Tsubasa asks while walking away from Nagaku's plotting finger.

Nagaku flips out a small piece of paper from a small supply pack on her left leg. She looks at the code which is written on the sheet, and begins speaking in her head while translating it.

"We have three missing-nins to find; all of them are well worth the trips. First we must find Uchiha Makoto. She should be on this island, or the next from what this list says." Nagaku says while watching Tsubasa sit down and stare into space with no emotion on his face.

Nagaku is annoyed when Tsubasa does this. She hates the mystery, since she's always trying to figure out new mysteries. She just can't get him to say anything important about himself.

"Why do we find her first? I'm sure one of the others would be a much better third person to the group." Tsubasa says just as Nagaku is about to snap on Tsubasa for having a 'too mysterious' cliché.

"We find her because you are boring to talk to! But seriously, she is an Uchiha, and her abilities can enhance ours two folds. Plus, there is an Uchiha clan still alive in the leaf and sand. She can help us find Raaza Sette. He's an earth user, and can help us kill the team who has control over Yakushi Hinamori." Nagaku says while feeling amazed she thought of these plans.

"…" Tsubasa remains quiet as he ponders why.

Nagaku grows annoyed and walks over to Tsubasa and kicks him off the side of Naruto's head. Tsubasa yawns as he sticks his foot to Naruto's nose.

"You kick like a girl, but why are you so angry?" he says to anger her even more.

"I'm pissed off at how you cannot even ask a question! I spent five months stealing the bingo book pages from the snow. It was damn cold too! I have my pride and shit, and I want you to throw me a damn bone once in a while to increase that!" Nagaku says like an immature adult.

Tsubasa looks her up and down and shrugs before turning his back on her and walking down the face of Naruto.

"When you grow some tits, I'll listen to you better, until then you'll have to tell me your plan without depending on my questions." Tsubasa says.

Nagaku would have steam coming from her ears if it was at all possible. She runs after Tsubasa, and is stopped as he whips out his blade and points it at her nose.

"I'm only tolerating you, Nagaku, because of your brains. I could kill you easily." Tsubasa says with a grim expression in his eyes.

Nagaku grows the same grim expression as many ways of killing Tsubasa comes into her mind.

"You are also aware I can do the same with you. You know how I fight." Nagaku says in retaliation.

Both of them stare each other down the sleek silver blade Tsubasa holds up with enormous power in his hand holding it. Tsubasa remembers when Nagaku actually did fight. Her techniques defeated a jounin of the sand. Her techniques are also known as forbidden by the entire world.

"Yes, I do know. But, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself with your own jutsu, like you always do. They are forbidden for a purpose. But, anyway, what about Yakushi? If he's in a team already why would he join this one?" Tsubasa asks as he sheaths his sword and returns his gaze to Nagaku's figure…still sick of how immature it is. He would prefer someone with some eye candy.

"Yakushi's group sucks, from what this bingo listing says. He's the only one noted as a B-class threat that would join us. He's also a medical shinobi, which should explain all." Nagaku says.

Tsubasa nods his head and looks to the tip top of the Kyuubi's ninth tail. Nagaku also looks in the direction as Tsubasa does so. Both of them look at a man dressed in a black and white cover all uniform of the snow. He is making seals as they look over, and his eyes behind his mask reveal great hate for the two. Tsubasa grabs Nagaku and jumps off of Naruto's head and falls into the ocean below.

"Who is this bastard?!" Tsubasa asks as if knowing it involves Nagaku.

"It's a hunter-nin. I already told you I stole these pages from the bingo book in the snow country. He must have tracked us down." Nagaku says before both of them hit the ocean water.

Tsubasa uses his chakra to jump from the water, and Nagaku swims underneath the water with great ease, obviously chakra controlled swimming. As Tsubasa jumps from the water he whips out his sword to meet with the snow hunter's attack. Tsubasa looks up to a large spike of ice, around four meters in length and half that in width, ending at a point. He releases some chakra into his sword and spins around and meets the point of the ice with his blade.

"Hariken Katana!" Tsubasa yells out as his sword cuts into the ice spike.

The ice stops in mid air, and Tsubasa stops as well, as if by some phenomenal ability he causes himself to float. The spike begins cracking from the inside out and explodes in various directions in front of him like a cone of ice shards! The snow hunter vanishes from sight as the shards slice toward him on Naruto's head. The snow hunter is then seen running down the monument, ready to intercept Tsubasa as he falls.

The hunter nin laughs to himself as he can imagine finishing this mission and returning home with his leader smiling at the returning of his bingo book pages. He was told before the mission that both of the shinobi he is hunting are genin, but they are in the bingo book with no rank, so they are not to be underestimated.

As the hunter jumps from the monument he forms a curved ice blade in his hand. He clashes with Tsubasa in mid air! Tsubasa is pushed back and falls into the water. But, with quick reflexes Tsubasa flips to his feet and it's as if a meteor has hit the water. A wall of water rises so high that it blocks out the sunlight for a moment for the hunter and Tsubasa. The hunter lands carefully on the water. He then stares into Tsubasa's eyes as the water calms. The hunter glances around, searching for the female. But he is not lucky enough to find her. He is impressed though, at Tsubasa's save of not falling into the water.

Tsubasa slashes his sword quickly as the water gets whipped from it. The hunter gets into an attack position and begins to make a set of seals. The hunter finishes his seals, and finds it weird Tsubasa didn't attack. But right when he does his last seal, Tsubasa slashes again in the air. The hunter doesn't move since he thinks this man is still whipping water from his blade. But, the hunter's jutsu is negated, and the hunter cannot understand why, until he feels a hot sensation running down his hands.

Tsubasa just stands there with his sword still drawn, no emotion on his face. The hunter looks down and finds his two pointer fingers and half his middle fingers cut off! The hunter looks up as Tsubasa sprints with great speed toward the hunter. The hunter parries a lot of the sword flurries Tsubasa attacks him with and realizes the man is slow. The hunter unable to use his seals begins bombarding Tsubasa with a flurry of kicks which seems to flow with cold chakra.

Tsubasa assumes if he is hit with the kick, his body part will freeze. He's seen this before on this island with some missing-nin. He can only dodge right now; the hunter's movements are too fast for him to attempt a counter attack. He's getting impatient waiting for Nagaku to reinforce him.

As Tsubasa begins thinking of reinforcements, the snow hunter is pulled under the water by one of his feet. Nagaku stands on the bottom of the ocean, in a forty feet deep area. She makes a few seals as the seaweed around the area wrap around the snow hunter. The snow hunter doesn't know of this jutsu, but he has to act quickly. He makes a seal using his pinky finger and the water begins to grow freezing cold. Nagaku swims away in haste, as she doesn't want to get caught in such a jutsu.

Tsubasa stands on top of the water, looking at the droplets of liquid fall from his clothing. He watches through the top of the water at the snow hunter trying to break the bindings of the seaweed. Tsubasa feels his feet begin to stick to the water as the top layer forms into ice. He nods, impressed.

"I wonder what type of jutsu she'll use in this situation." Tsubasa ask himself, still not knowing what Nagaku's full potential is.

Nagaku with chakra in her swim speeds at the snow hunter before he can finish his jutsu. The water is freezing but Nagaku endures it instead of runs like she wanted to do. She makes a bunch of seals and grabs onto the snow hunter's throat. The snow hunter gurgles as Nagaku raises her hand up as the air inside of the snow hunter's body begins coming from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes by force. The snow hunter has underestimated the two as a team, and has died because of it.

Nagaku rises to the top of the water as the snow hunter falls to the bottom of the ocean for the ocean life to do what they will with him.

"What was that jutsu?" Tsubasa asks with interest.

"That was Kuki Tsuiho Suru (Air Expel). I stole it from a Takigakure Forbidden jutsu scroll, all wrapped up in the shibuki's office. It's a nice little technique I use for water battles. You like?" Nagaku asks, while also bragging.

"No, it sucks." He says before walking toward Namidagakure in search of the Uchiha Kunoichi.

Nagaku growls in anger and races after Tsubasa at his awful pun of her assassination jutsu.


	2. Chapter 1 A Woman's Scourn

Season 1 - Chapter 1 - A Woman's Scourn

She hung her head in shame as her father's life retired in her arms. It was a dark day where shinobi all over the world revealed their abilities and purposes. Makoto Uchiha remembered watching the sand rise; the mist form, the ground shake, and the air vibrate as the water country was enveloped in death. Nobody from Kirigakure lived through the forces of foreign shinobi. Konoha was the only shinobi she could recognize. The woman known as Hinata Hyuuga was the only name she heard from her fathers lips, targeting his vengeance on the woman who killed him. Makoto's father smiled as he died, it was a good death for an Uchiha. But, Makoto did not understand it. The Hyuuga were weaker than the Uchiha. She hated them from the time she became able to think for herself, which was the day her father died.

She opens her eyes to watch the field around her fill with a team of shinobi. One of the members was from the sand. He was dressed in a white flak jacket with black trousers and gloves. He was their leader. The other four members of his shinobi team looked like reject criminals; their clothing worn and torn, as if recently freed from a hidden prison. Makoto remained silent, pondering why these men jumped out of their hiding spots to converse with her. She said nothing.

The leader looks Makoto up and down with elevator eyes. He looks at her rough brown hair, which looks like it has not been combed in years. She has braids, with some blue beads to the left side of her face. She has a sullen look on her face, and Makoto has bright sky blue eyes. Her lips hide her anger, hate, and happiness. She wears a pair of tight latex pants, black. On her chest is a tight black t shirt with an illustration of the Uchiha family crest, fan, on the lower left side of it. She wears a light weight coat which also wears the crest of the Uchiha on the back. The coat is made of cotton, and not made for warmth. It hides a small supply pack on her back. Makoto doesn't seemed phased by their appearance.

"I am Abura Gaoi, leader of the newly five man team: Warui. We are hoping to make it six. You will come with us, or you will die." Abura says with a proud smile across his face.

"…." Makoto replies with while she looks to the sky with closed eyes. She inhales fresh air as the Warui seem to become frustrated as she insults them with her lack of attention.

"I see, so that is how it will be. Uchiha Makoto, the Diamond Sharingan, will be the death of you." Abura says as his minions laugh insanely. She was right to assume they were prisoners. They act like them.

As Abura waits impatiently for her reply Makoto directs her attention to the group and opens her eyes. Abura growls as Makoto's eyes have two Sharingan crests; she activated it without him even knowing. Makoto could see things she could not normally observe. She saw one of Abura's shinobi making seals, and as he finishes Abura jumps at Makoto for a full frontal attack. The remaining three shinobi make seals and two of them jump right and left forming a pincer attack. She understands what she must do to defeat this crew. But, can she do it? That is the only thing Makoto is worrying about. She has fought many groups, but none led by the sand. The sand know how to strategies. They are dangerous in her book.

Makoto quickly creates a fire seal and jumps into the air. She breaths in and feels the heat of many fires in her throat. She remembers this ecstatic feeling from when her father educated her in the ways of the Uchiha shinobi.

"Katon: Funsha no Jutsu!" She releases a huge wave of fire downward which acted like propulsion to blast her more than two hundred yards into the sky. Her enemies looked straight up, amazed at the ability to become a rocket. As Makoto began to fall she forms another seal and places her hands to her mouth!

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" She says as five enormous fireballs are seen falling toward the five Warui!

Makoto smiles as two of the shinobi are engulfed in the flames. They fall and she can see the leader, Abura, grimacing at her abilities. But, she knew he was not done. From what she can see, he has many trump cards. It's just about finding which trump card he's going to throw and what to throw out to counter it. She was taught in many techniques, and her father was not her only sensei. Abura reveals a thick sword which he pulls from his flack jacket. The sword was odd looking in Makoto's eyes. She did not understand why he would use it. It looked a lot more like a shovel than a blade. She only chuckled before she was one hundred yards from the ground.

Abura flipped backwards and begins his sprint toward her vicinity of landing. Before she could touch the ground, Makoto makes a seal and a chakra aura can be seen in her hand. All the moisture in the air act like magnets to her hand! An enormous blade of water forms in her hand and meets with Abura's blade in a clash of water and steel!

"Interesting, I see you are not the traditional Uchiha!" Abura speaks as he jumps back.

In a normal one on one fight, Makoto would remain still, watching her main enemy's stance and movements. But she remembered there are two more of his lackeys running around her. A normal shinobi would not be able to see their movements, and even Makoto couldn't see them completely. But, she could see their foot prints.

Somehow they are running around her, but they are not attacking. She finds this weird, but as she is about to make an attack on one of the speeding shinobi, Abura jumps high into the air and aims his blade downward! Makoto clashes with his blade, knowing the shinobi around her will attack her if she would move into their vicinity. But, as Makoto notices the swords connect, she observes an oddity in Abura's blade! It's cut in half! Makoto backs up as Abura's knees bend and the other half of the blade cuts her across her stomach! But, as she jumps back the two shinobi wrap metallic wires around her!

Makoto falls to the ground bounded. Her face shows a lot of disappointment in herself. If only she was stronger, she thinks in her head. Abura runs toward her a second time, about to cut into her beautiful chest. But, he is interrupted as Tsubasa slams down in front of him. The three remaining shinobi stand at guard, waiting for some kind of answer to why this boy interrupted their battle. They look toward Tsubasa with intention to kill her new ally. But, Abura shoots a glance behind the Warui group to Nagaku walking beside the two dead burned shinobi.

"I don't need your help." Makoto says as she forms a water blade with her fingers and cuts the metallic strings. She stands up and looks to Tsubasa and Nagaku as if annoyances.

"Hmm, the infamous Makoto Uchiha? Is this what there is to expect from you?" Tsubasa says while looking at Abura.

"I don't care who you all are, but you forced me to kill you all!" Abura says as if taken beyond the limit of sanity.

He creates a combination of seals and hits the ground with a fist. Nagaku jumps back as a geyser of oil shoots from the ground. Soon after one by one geysers of oil shoot up as if he has struck billions of dollars!

"Haha, that's fucking brilliant! He made it so we cannot use fire jutsus! Tsubasa lets kill this guy and take Makoto to help us find the others!" Nagaku says while clapping her hand at Abura's jutsu as if it were a form of entertainment.

"You are damn annoying." Abura says as his other two shinobi jump from sight once more.

"Yes, she has a bad habit of being annoying." Tsubasa says to Abura agreeing with his observation on Nagaku.

Abura following through with his death threat, he makes another jutsu as ten clones form from the oil. He carries the two blades in his hands and jumps at Makoto first. Makoto jumps over Tsubasa with a rage built in her, wanting to have a good fight today anyway. Tsubasa jumps out of the way as four of the clones attack him from all sides. The shinobi's blades strike at Tsubasa with a skillful technique, but not god enough. Tsubasa ducks and turns to dodge the three shinobi's attacks, and meets the forth shinobi clone with a block of the two blades with one sword. Tsubasa cleverly grabs one of the clone's swords behind him, and stabs it through the clone whose blades collided with his. The clone falls into a puddle of oil as Tsubasa turns to battle the remaining.

Makoto collides with Abura clones. She spins and jumps, and tumbles her way around the clones. As they turn to ambush her once more she is in a more offensive style. Abura clones stab toward her again in a skillful manner but miss as her form seems to melt into the oil.

"Sharingan!? How can this be, I underestimated the time it took to copy a jutsu! Damn!" Abura screams while his clones look around for where Makoto could be.

Soon two clones melt to the ground as two ice blades cut right through them. Makoto jumps through a geyser of oil, as she hid behind it. But, right when she aims for the 'real' Abura, from her assumption a glimmer is seen in front of her. The wires wrap around Makoto once more! She forgot about the two remaining shinobi of his.

"Haha, you are dense Uchiha! You got fooled twice by the same technique, which has got to hurt. I don't care what shinobi you are." Abura mocks.

But, as Makoto falls to the ground she explodes into a puff of smoke! Abura guesses correctly as he realizes she also knows how to make shadow clones. He has underestimated his foe, and he doesn't even know who these other two friends of hers are. Nagaku is fast, wise and agile, Tsubasa is skillful, fierce and fast, and Makoto is strong willed, quick thinking and very skillful. Abura stands by himself as his clones are defeated quicker than he anticipated.

Nagaku makes a single seal and touches the ground the clones run at her on. The oil begins to change density and turns itself into water. The oil clones explode as the chakra flow into them is no longer stable. Abura watches in amazement of such a jutsu. But, he also realizes at the last moment what just happened.

"I got you now!" Makoto screams as she runs past Nagaku forming some seals and placing her feet into the water.

The water begins to rise around Makoto and forms a wall behind her to protect her from the two rapid moving shinobi. As Tsubasa juggles the clones in the air, he realizes these clones are only oil based. He screams "Hariken Katana!" and touches the blade of one of the clones. His assumption was correct and he watches as the hurricane which is created at the pin point of his blade blows the remaining clones away in a furry of wind.

Nagaku stands alone far behind Makoto. Nagaku begins forming seals and ends it with a bird hand seal. She begins kicking in random directions and Abura and his shinobi watch as the kicks create a displacement in the air. The displacement acts like a thrown weapon and slams into the geysers of oil. As it hits the geysers cut in two, but continue to flow out like normal. Abura's shinobi watch in amazement of such a jutsu but find out the hard way of why she was doing it. Nagaku smiles as the two shinobi get stabbed through by Tsubasa!

"It was a distraction…fools." Tsubasa says before sliding his blades out of the two prisoner shinobi.

Nagaku claps in delight of watching the two shinobi fall, and allows Makoto to finish off the leader. Makoto nods in agreement, and begins doing a seal. Abura's eyes shoot open as he notices what seals Makoto is doing. He cannot believe such an insane person exists. Abura begins running as Makoto says the words which causes his stomach to jump through his mouth figuratively.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan!" Makoto says as the oil field they now stand in is engulfed in flames!

The bodies of the opposing shinobi burn into a quick crisp and Abura is not quick enough to get away from the field! He is quickly swallowed up in the cause of his own jutsu. The entire field resembles hell, and Makoto, Tsubasa, and Nagaku don't even care. They all hide inside a small box of water created by Makoto. She looks to Tsubasa and Nagaku and scoffs at how they interrupted her fight.

"Fuck you too! But anyway, I'll be blunt, we need you. You won't be threatened like that guy did. This is all free will Makoto Uchiha. We are creating a group, which will then create a hidden village, and then destroy the other villages." Nagaku says with a charm to her voice.

"I'm not interested in that. But, I will follow you guys until I kill Hinata Hyuuga of Konoha. She was one of the few who were not destroyed during the war." Makoto said with a mumble or regret.

Tsubasa only watches the fire engulf the fields. It reminds him of the illustrations of hell: pillars of fire jumping from the earth, and fields of fire all around. His mind marches through his imagination while the girls talk. Tsubasa now understands why Nagaku wanted a female, to talk to. At least he does not need to worry about being nagged anymore.

"Okay!" Nagaku said while attempting to grab Makoto's hand as an ally, but meets no polite methods from her to seal the agreement. Nagaku can only rest assure, that in the end, she can kill this Uchiha if needed.


	3. Chapter 2 Stairway to Heaven

Chapter 3

Season 1

Both men run in a fluid motion, almost like water in a rough river. Sette Raaza runs like a cheetah through the foliage on the ground and Hinamori Yakushi jumps from limb to limb, swinging his arms out if he has to like a monkey in the trees. They both do not know each other, but the hunters after them do. They have been running from the hunters for five days, and have not lost the pursuers. Why were their names in the Bingo book, they thought.

Sette has black hair which extends like mountains on the back side of his head. His body wears black soft spandex roll, which is wrapped around like a spiral. The rolling stops as it hits the pelvis. He wears generic shinobi breeches and a holster on his right thigh. His shoes are tight gripped, fitting his big feet well. But, Hinamori is different, with a more unique appearance. While leaping from tree to tree his long pony-tail swings behind him showing off shadowy black hair. He wears a tight black sleeveless shirt with many different straps on his arms and legs. Around his waist are belts with multiple pouches filled with miscellaneous items. Hinamori wears black denim shorts with some soft white bandages running down his left leg. Around his wrists are also bandages.

"They have got to stop this shit!" Hinamori grunts while gripping a limb and shooting himself to another tree.

"They are hunters, this is what they do. But, they are stronger than us…that is where the problem comes in." Sette points out while using another jutsu to lift the earth to fill in his foot prints.

Sette thinks as he continues his pace about running away from Konoha. If he knew the hunt would be taking him through different nations, he would have just removed a cigarette from his pocket and sucked in the hot smoke into his lungs, before his body was tortured and then killed by Konoha's ANBU units. That would have had a less dramatic life. He keeps looking over to Hinamori as if asking why the boy is even following him. He's like a monkey in the trees, Sette thought.

But, on Hinamori's mind is nothing. He only wants to get away from the hunters who have been chasing him for almost a week. Maybe he can use this to his opportunity. This man below him is also in the Bingo book. The hunters are now going to split in two, and maybe he can take the pursuers on if only one follows him. But, he realized the hunters are smarter than that. They are elite missing-nin trying to make a life by hunting their own kind. An honest life, Hinamori believes. He only wishes he thought of it before killing his teammate for being trapped in a genjutsu.

Both, Sette and Hinamori seem to be slowing down, not by choice. They both look down to see the ground starting to get wet and sticky. The branches begin to ooze black substances as Hinamori is almost stuck to one of the branches. Sette has to do something quick, which is what he thinks. He forms a combo of seals and presses his hand through the black substance on the ground. The smell of the substance screams tar. But, he is not worried about that right now. His hand manages to hit the earth and Hinamori and Sette feels the effects of his jutsu occur. The ground rumbles wildly and shoots toward the sky. The pillar slowly breaks off strangely while leading up.

"Stairs," asks Hinamori with a twisted expression of confusion on his face. "Why did you shoot up stairs instead of a huge wall?"

"The hunters can jump over, or go through the wall. Stairs will help us fight them. Obviously there is one close enough to send his jutsu to slow us down. This way we will be on the top of the steps, and they will have to fight us at a disadvantage point." Sette says while running up the stairs as the black ooze secretes thicker layers.

Hinamori watches as a squirrel is caught up in the ooze and gets swallowed up by it. He jumps onto the stairs as his foot almost becomes one with the black ooze on the tree branch. He races right behind Sette, and manages to reach the top as the hunters are seen running to the bottom of the stair case.

"Stairway to heaven," Sette says while lighting up a cigarette.

"How high is this thing, anyway?" Hinamori asks.

Sette looks around and estimates the height of the stairway, he overdid himself.

"I'd say, two hundred feet tall?" Sette guesses while watching as their pursuers meet the foot of the stairs and look up to Sette and Hinamori.

Hinamori is impressed at the sights he can see from this altitude. He smiles and waves to the guys on the ground, and watches as Sette flicks the cigarette to the ground below. Sette begins planning on how to fight these guys after his first move is set. Hinamori's eyes seem to follow the cigarette down to the black ooze on the ground. As it hits, a burst of flames race through the entire forest! Everything that was once alive in the forest is now dead. Their pursuers jump up the steps as they also watch the cigarette fall to the ground.

There are three pursuers which all wear masks of pure steel which are finely smoothed to shine in the sun and the midnight moonlight. One is a tall kunoichi who wears a tight leather kimono; her mask shows an expression of sorrow. She has short hair, which is spiked like a porcupine. The second and shortest is a small man with extremely thin muscles and a hunch which reveals a slightly insane look to him. His mask is one expressing scheming. He wears a tight top with multiple kunai attached to it, and his hair is bald. He wears a pair of razor sharp claws on his wrists which recoil and shoot forward at will. The third hunter wears the mask of happiness. This man has very long hair which extends over his shoulders and down his chest and back. He wears very loose clothing and wears black chains across his chest and back. He wears a pair of wooden sandals which make a clog sound as he walks up the stairs.

"Sette Raaza and Hinamori Yakushi, you are wanted alive. So, if you make this easy on us then we won't hurt you any further than this jog through time and nations." The man in happiness says with a scream to the top of the stairway.

Hinamori whistles impressed as he sees why Sette called these stairs, 'Stairway to Heaven.' Below the stairway is an enormous ocean of fire, where the earth used to be. The tar jutsu one of them used seems to be a destructive weapon. Hinamori grows furious at their predicament and looks to Sette with an answer.

"How the fuck do we get down from here?" Hinamori asks with solid anger in his voice.

"We cannot jump, because of the fire. I can make a slide to get us away, but it'll just be more running. I'm tired of running. I've not slept in two straight days because of your damn snoring." Sette said.

"So, you want to fight?" Hinamori asks as if already knowing. He slaps his side annoyed.

"Who are you guys?" Sette screams to the hunters as they also plan a tactic to getting their targets up the stairs.

The man in the happiness mask seems to be answering for the group.

"We are known as 'Yautja'. I am Ikiteiru Kurai, the leader of this group. My female comrade is Rei Rei Tokage, the infamous lizard rider. This subordinate of mine with his fangs on his hands is known only as Shoki. But, do not get me wrong, we are only three of fifteen. The Yautja is a large group of hunters." Iki says while figuring out a way to get up the stairs safely to grab their targets.

Iki begins whispering to his comrades as Sette turns around and looks over the surrounding. He grows a smile as he laughs to himself. Hinamori turns to watch Sette grow insane, but then he chuckles too. Both of them turn around and begin creating hand seals. Iki takes this sudden action of the two as a hint to start the challenge of the climb. Hinamori makes a simple tiger hand seal as his finger tips begin glowing a feint, but sharp chakra. Sette creates a combo of seals as the Yautja climb the stairs with grace. But, they find a challenge happen as Sette places his hands on the floor of the top step. Over two dozen spikes extend forcing the Yautja to break from their formation.

"He did it," Iki says as him and Rei Rei quickly run up the sides of the heavenly stairs.

Shoki laughs insanely while getting into a squatting position and with a strange spin which creates tons of dust, the spikes are all shredded into small lumps of would be stumps.

Iki and Rei Rei race toward Sette and Hinamori with hands creating a combination of seals. Rei Rei places her hand on the side of the stairway and everyone watches as a huge puff of smoke rises from her position. Hinamori smiles as he shakes his head. Rei Rei comfortably sits on top of a large black lizard with a saddle already available for her. The lizard is an enormous twenty foot long monitor. Sette did not expect such a large lizard, and he begins forming a multitude of seals as Hinamori shoots a smirk to the woman and bites his thumb and places it in front of himself as a huge explosion of smoke forms. Hinamori rides on the back of a huge praying mantis which has a brown exoskeleton and enormous spikes which Hinamori grabs onto and yells at the top of his lungs. Sette almost thinks Hinamori has gone crazy also, until he takes his cue and lunges forward toward the lizard and its female summoner.

"Rei Rei was it? Meet my lil friend! Ashuru clan! Cut that up for some dinner tonight! Hahaha!" Hinamori screams as his mantis summon jumps at the lizard. The lizard jumps to the side, dodging the obvious stab the mantis attempted to attack with. But, as the mantis misses Hinamori jumps off and unsheathes a short thin sword which cuts into the side of the enormous lizard. As Hinamori slices into the lizard he is quickly kicked away with great force! His chest screams in pain as the mantis catches him and flies back to the stairway.

"Thank you, I'd kiss you if you weren't covered in bacteria." Hinamori says as he dodges an assault from Shoki!

The man was quick and if his mantis was not in the way he would have died instantly. The mantis puffs into smoke and vanishes as it is hit hard. Shoki laughs while Hinamori stands in front of him. Hinamori is cussing in his head not wanting to fight this man. He cut up spikes like it was nothing. Hinamori holds out his sword in front of him and a hand which is extended behind him, the tips glowing. Shoki laughs while talking as if he doesn't know what he's talking about.

"I see I see, but his blades are not dull. I like it when they are dull. I can cut them better. Oh no, he will feel my blades if he uses is, it's just the way of things!" Shoki says as he jumps in spiraling cannon form straight at Hinamori.

Hinamori stabs his blade into the stairway as Shoki's blades are stopped. Shoki stops laughing and looks at his spin stop. Somehow, this seems to shock Shoki. Hinamori assumes nobodies ever stopped his blades. But, this blade is different from any common sword. As Shoki stands their in a crouched position and studies the sword, Hinamori kicks at the man and taps the guys shoulder. Shoki jumps back and laughs at the terrible attack and then growls in pain as he feels his shoulder quit on him.

"FUCK! Why is my arm hurting!?" Shoki asks.

"That's because I cut the muscles attaching your muscle to your shoulder blade." Hinamori says while making sure the other two are now attacking him from behind. To his luck, Rei Rei and Iki seem to be targeting Sette. Hinamori smiles, but then frowns as he feels insulted. He is the most dangerous one, not Sette, he thinks to himself. But, he returns his eyes to Shoki just in time to side step a very quick swipe to Hinamori's mid section. Even though Hinamori has dodged it, he watches as blood splashes across the ground. Hinamori looks down to a three claw cut on the side of his stomach.

"How did you?" Hinamori asks while looking to Shoki's body movements.

Shoki moves in a wavering motion. His body is blurry to Hinamori. Is it his speed? Is it genjutsu? Is Hinamori poisoned? These are all questions Hinamori is asking himself as Shoki moves at him again. But, as Shoki moves forward once, there are four shadows behind him which move in the exact same method. It's like four Shoki's are attacking at the same time.

Hinamori quickly watches the first Shoki's blade, and dodges it. He dodges the second Shadow, and then the third, and then forth. But, Hinamori grabs his chest in pain as he is sliced deeply through his shirt. Hinamori stumbles to the edge of the stairway and leans on a knee as he watches Shoki's movements once more. This time he finds twelve Shoki's following the first one. Hinamori's eyes squint. He hates this Shoki guy, and his annoying silvery mask. But, Hinamori finally realizes something and smirks as Shoki attacks at him again.

Hinamori stands right in the way of Shoki's blade, and spins around to strike behind him. The real Shoki is seen behind him, jumping away in a couple flips and spins.

"How did you figure it out, Hinamori?" Shoki says while twitching his head in spastic ways.

"Your illusion is too good. I could see you in your clone's mask standing behind me. But, the thing I have to point out is, the blood dripping from your claw this time is not mine." Hinamori says with a smirk.

Shoki twitches again, with insanity and looks to his claw and then to his hand. Shoki screams and observes his hand bleeding. Shoki looks up as Hinamori slices at him, but Shoki is too fast and jumps over Hinamori with an incredible leap.

While Hinamori fights Sette watches as his fight won't be that easy. Rei Rei watches as the culprit who sliced her lizard, but finds Shoki will have more fun with him. She rushes toward Sette. But as Sette finishes his long combo of seals he places his hand on his stairway once more and watches as two stone snake heads jump from the stairway and bites into the monitor lizard and attempts to grab Rei Rei. But, as it aims for the woman she jumps high into the air. She runs up the neck of the stone snake as it spirals and twists to latch its earthy fangs into her. But, with a quick strong kick she crumbles the snake into a thousand small pieces and watches her lizard puff into smoke. She makes a 'tch' sound between her teeth at the pain her lizard was just forced into.

"That's one of us delayed, but what about me?" Iki said as he appears behind Sette.

Iki kicks Sette through the neck of the earth snake which is still spiraling around Rei Rei. But, as Iki smiles proud, he finds Sette's body crumbling into hard pieces of dirt. Iki cusses as his leg is grabbed by Sette from inside the stairway. Iki is suddenly pulled into the stairway and Sette jumps up from behind him.

"I think this jutsus called Head Hunter jutsu." Sette said as he is about to kick Iki's head off.

But, right when Sette is about to slam his foot into Iki's head, Sette finds his foot sinking into the now black ooze covering his shoe. Inside the black ooze he finds an explosive note.

"This…is…shit!" Sette says as the force blows him backward over the lake of fire. But, as Sette falls he watches as the fire around the area dies in an instant and spider webs cover the ground to give Sette a softer landing.

"Just in time…now I have to like…go away and vomit now." Nagaku says as she tumbles to the side holding her stomach and flicking some spider webs from her lips and chin.

Makoto Uchiha and Tsubasa Kurosaki are seen walking up the stairway. Tsubasa has his sword extended toward Shoki, and Makoto activates her Sharingan and stares at Rei Rei with intent on killing the woman. The battle seems to stop as the new guests have revealed themselves.

Sette slowly falls to the ground as the spider webs snap off the stairway and some of the previously burned trees. He lands with a thud into the still warm tar which layers the ground. He feels a thick layer of water on the tar though, which he is thankful for. Everyone looks at the new group who has shown themselves, with confusion.

Iki rises up from the ground below the first step of the stairway. He claps his hands and looks at each member while figuring out who each of them are.

"Alright, I see what we have here: Makoto Uchiha, of the water. Tsubasa, of the clouds. Nagaku, of the waterfall. Rei Rei…Shoki…we leave now." Iki says as he and his group smash some smoke bombs on the ground and vanish before the smoke vanishes.

"You guys fought a good battle," Tsubasa says while helping Hinamori up.

"Yeah," Hinamori says, "But, I'd rather not have some strangers pop in and scare people away."

Nagaku breaks into the conversation while walking up the side of the stairway, "I'm sorry to ruin your testosterone gathering, but I need medical attention."

"She doesn't seem hurt?" Sette asked.

"She never does. Her jutsus damage her body when she uses them. She is Nagaku Noroi, a B-Class missing-nin, known as the Forbidden Kunoichi." Tsubasa explains.

Hinamori laughs and walks over to Nagaku as she just makes it to the top of the stairway and collapses. He feeds her a blood pill, and rests her head on his lap. In his mind he is only doing this to help the person who helped them.

"Anyway….the Yautja will be back after us, just with a larger amount of people. So let me explain why we are here." Nagaku said as she gains consciousness.


End file.
